00:03:08.640we have produced a six-week marriage mentor program on theology, roles, money, sex, children,
00:03:17.640and more. And these are basically 30 to 40-minute lectures with both her and I, with a quick
00:03:25.240breakdown of tasks to do for the week. And it will really help you form up a biblical marriage. You
00:03:31.560can do this program by yourself, I mean, as an individual couple, or in a group, a small group
00:03:37.840of couples. It's $99 a couple. There's a discount for those that do it in a group format, and all
00:03:44.760of that funding goes to support our ministry. It's a great time, guys, to start investing into your
00:03:50.780marriage, and it's a great way to do that. So check out ultimatemarriage.com to get started.
00:03:57.180All right, today's question is from Justin from Jackson, Tennessee, and he asks,
00:04:03.520Pastor Dale, I can sense an increasing hostility toward Christianity in our culture,
00:04:09.080and I'm finding more and more friends falling prey to the cultural influences of our day.
00:04:15.220However, I don't feel equipped to respond to many of the common questions around sexuality,
00:04:21.660gender, substance abuse, and suicide that come from non-believers in my life.
00:04:26.980In addition, I also don't feel equipped to answer the biblical or theological questions
00:04:32.240that come up among people in my church. Ultimately, I'm tired of not having the answer
00:04:38.840to these important questions, and I would like to change that in 2021. Can you tell me your
00:04:45.880daily routine or another routine that would help prepare me for a more active ministry in this new
00:04:52.080year? Okay, Justin, this is a fantastic question. Thank you for it. It's timely, and I believe your
00:04:58.080observation is correct regarding the changing times in our culture. Ladies and gentlemen,
00:05:05.740I need to say something. The Lord has been very gracious to his church here in America and in the
00:05:12.180West with his soft warning signs of the more difficult season to come ahead. The last place
00:05:19.400that you want to prepare yourself for battle is on the battlefield. The time to make yourself
00:05:28.020equipped and useful for the Lord's ministry is now, and those who are faithful will be fruitful,
00:05:37.780and those who are spiritually lethargic and apathetic during this time will be barren.
00:05:43.220And we cannot keep believing that the five-minute Jesus-calling devotional time and the 30-second prayer each day will be sufficient investment, spiritual investment, for the Lord's sanctification and preparation for the season that's ahead of us.
00:06:02.300I mean, it amazes me that so many people who are hurting and broken, hopeless and weak every day walk by, I mean, literally physically walk by the word of God that sits upon their shelves.
00:06:17.020The very solution that they are yearning for is laying upon the pages within a few feet of their hands.
00:06:24.880But instead, we find ourselves looking to social media and the therapy of entertainment and video games.
00:10:35.240I wanted to share my personal, I think you asked specifically for that, what do I do on a daily
00:10:43.680basis? What is the routine that has helped me be more fruitful, grow in maturity, and has been
00:10:54.660used by the Lord to prepare me for more active ministry? So I want to begin with the why. I
00:11:03.620I don't want to just, again, tell you to go read more.
00:11:05.800That's not what this episode is about.
00:11:08.160But I want to tell you the why I study the way I study and why I commit the time to be with the Lord.
00:11:16.380First is that I want you guys just to know you can't know your Bible by always allowing or by only allowing other people to tell you what's in it.
00:11:24.540You must be like the Bereans and check the teachings of others against the Word of God yourself.
00:11:30.780So one, you can't rely always on the podcast or always on the sermon or always on the theology book.
00:21:13.680It is basically a collection of Puritan prayers.
00:21:16.180You've probably heard me talk about it before.
00:21:18.400Both The Devotional and The Valley of Vision are books that are produced by the publisher Banner of Truth,
00:21:24.780and they are a fantastic resource for really strong theological content.
00:21:30.200The Valley of Vision is a one-prayer-a-day book, and I have a little leather-bound copy of it,
00:21:37.260And it helps me see the great prayers of saints in the past.
00:21:47.080It also helps me grow my own prayer life as it expands my comprehension of what prayer is and helps me see what other saints are thankful for, are asking for, are framing their thinking around, and it's become a very edifying process to widen my personal prayer life.
00:22:14.920And so the Valley of Vision. Once I'm done with that, and again, the devotional takes me three,
00:22:20.200four minutes. The Valley of Vision takes me three, four minutes. So we're moving quickly here.
00:22:25.540The next thing I move into is prayer. And prayer is not easy, okay? I labor to get into deep prayer.
00:22:36.380I mean, it is sometimes excruciating to get into deep prayer.
00:22:43.380The distractions of my life and my phone and my kids and my dog and whatever else is going on in my life,
00:22:55.740it's often difficult to get myself into a place where I'm feeling and experiencing a true communion with the Lord.
00:23:05.820And then I'm getting past the superficiality of asking for things,
00:23:11.160but thanking God and submitting to his will and glorifying in his wonder and reveling in his truth
00:23:18.460and really getting a chance to have an intimate moment with the Lord.
00:23:23.060I'm not seeking for some experiential moment that I'm trying to get a better spiritual high every time.